© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Achim Kleuker: Nofretete

Exhibitions

Berlin is world leader when it comes to culture, alone the large number of museums reflects this.You could stay in Berlin for a few months and still visit a different museum every day. All in all there are 175 museums! There is great art and ancient cultures as well as specialised and peculiar topics. Herer a few tips to tempt you. 

Hamburger Bahnhof, a hotspot for fans of contemporary art, is a former trainstation (Bahnhof) which was closed down long ago.

A museum brings the puppets to life: the Puppentheater Museum Berlin has one of the most outstanding collections on the history of puppet theatres. The exhibition displays all kinds of stage puppets, covering 4 centuries from all over the world. It is a unique museum. 

So is the Schwule Museum Berlin. The most interesting permanent exhibition gives a good overview on gay history in Germany, focussing on Berlin. It resembles a collective memory. Here you learn about how the emancipation movement started which is also a part of German history.

The Verborgenes Museum (hidden museum) is also a history museum – from a purely female perspective. Founded in 1986 in order to remind us of those female artists and bring them back to the public’s attention, whose lifes works were forgotten for whatever reason.

The Jüdische Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum) gives you an insight in a once so busy cultural life which was nearly completely extinguished. Alone the postmodern building designed by Daniel Libeskind is an experience and an attraction. The programme covers diverse exhibitions and just the historic permanent exhibition on 2000 years of German-Jewish history is worthwhile. The special exhibitions are innovative.

Every Berlin tourist must visit the Museumsinsel (museum isle) – with its diverse architectural as well as cultural heritage of one of the most important museum complexes in the world. Alte Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum – and only just reopened in 2009 after decades of lying in ruins from the war – Neues Museum, Bode Museum as well as Pergamonmuseum are tourist magnets. Here you encounter history first hand. For the Pergamonmuseum alone, a half day is the minimum amount of time to plan on spending there: the reconstruction of archaeological building ensembles like the Pergamon altar, Ischtar Gate including the street where processions moved along in Babylon, are as imposing as they are famous worldwide. Berlin’s old (and new) Mitte around the Museum Isle has a lot to offer but that´s not nearlyall, because the German capital has many centres.

Schloss Charlottenburg, former residence of Frederick the Great is worth visiting. A trip to the rim of Berlin is recommendable because of the world class exquisite collections at Museumszentrum Berlin-Dahlem, with Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Ethnologisches Museum and Museum Europäischer Kulturen, the latter reopening after renovations in autumn 2010.   

If you are interested in German history then the Deutsches Historisches Museum is advisable. The DDR Museum (GDR Museum) is big on the relations between East and  West Germans. But anyhow; how could you actually avoid history in Berlin ? Impossible, and if you are lucky – just ask a Berliner, then you get a first hand story on history on the spot and at no cost but a smile.

 

© Foto: Jüdisches Museum Berlin/Jens Ziehe

Adresses

Berliner Museumsinsel: 

Alte Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum, Neues Museum,
Bode-Museum, Pergamonmuseum: Am Lustgarten 1, Berlin-Mitte 

Das Verborgene Museum, Schlüterstraße 70, Berlin-Charlottenburg

DDR Museum Berlin, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 1, Berlin-Mitte

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Unter den Linden 2, Berlin-Mitte

Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Invalidenstraße 50-51, Berlin-Mitte

Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Lindenstraße 9-14, Berlin-Kreuzberg

Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Lansstraße, Berlin-Dahlem

Ethnologisches Museum, Arnimallee 27, Berlin-Dahlem

Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Im Winkel 6-8, Belin-Dahlem

Puppentheater-Museum, Karl-Marx-Straße 135, Berlin-Neukölln

Schloss Charlottenburg, Spandauer Damm 10, Berlin-Charlottenburg

Schwules Museum, Mehringdamm 61, Berlin-Kreuzberg